Scheduling of uplink transport blocks

ABSTRACT

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to techniques for preparing data for transmission from a user equipment in a wireless communication system. In some embodiments, a method may limit memory access starts during a time interval to ensure that all memory access operations are completed with a transmission time interval.

INTRODUCTION

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, andmore particularly, to techniques for preparing data for transmissionfrom a user equipment in a wireless communication system.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustelecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging,and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employmultiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication withmultiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth,transmit power, etc.). Examples of such multiple-access technologiesinclude Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, code division multiple access(CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency divisionmultiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous codedivision multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems, to name a few.

In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system mayinclude a number of base stations, each simultaneously supportingcommunication for multiple communication devices, otherwise known asuser equipments (UEs). In LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or morebase stations may define an eNodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in anext generation or 5G network), a wireless multiple access communicationsystem may include a number of distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units(EUs), edge nodes (ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs),transmission reception points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with anumber of central units (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access nodecontrollers (ANCs), etc.), where a set of one or more distributed units,in communication with a central unit, may define an access node (e.g., anew radio base station (NR BS), a new radio node-B (NR NB), a networknode, 5G NB, gNB, gNodeB, etc.). A base station or DU may communicatewith a set of UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from abase station or to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissionsfrom a UE to a base station or distributed unit).

These multiple access technologies have been adopted in varioustelecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enablesdifferent wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national,regional, and even global level. An example of an emergingtelecommunication standard is new radio (NR), for example, 5G radioaccess. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standardpromulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It isdesigned to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improvingspectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use ofnew spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards usingOFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink(UL), as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues toincrease, there exists a need for further improvements in NR technology.Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to othermulti-access technologies and the telecommunication standards thatemploy these technologies.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have severalaspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirableattributes. Without limiting the scope of this disclosure as expressedby the claims which follow, some features will now be discussed briefly.After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading thesection entitled “Detailed Description” one will understand how thefeatures of this disclosure provide advantages that include improvedcommunications between participants in a wireless network.

Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication. In a firstaspect, a method of preparing data for transmission from a userequipment, includes: initializing a counter at the beginning of a firstpacket processing time interval of a transmit time interval; determininga plurality of data blocks to be transmitted during the transmit timeinterval; for each respective data block in the plurality of datablocks: comparing a value of the counter to a threshold value; if thevalue of the counter is less than or equal to the threshold value:mapping the respective data block to a location in one of a plurality oftransport blocks; and incrementing the value of the counter if a packetprocessing event will occur during the first packet processing timeinterval of the transmit time interval; and if the value of the counteris greater than the threshold value: mapping the respective data blockto a location in one of the plurality of transport blocks such that apacket processing event associated with the respective data block willnot occur until a second packet processing time interval of the transmittime interval. In another aspect, an user equipment is configured toperform the method of preparing data for transmission from a userequipment described herein. In yet another aspect, a computer-readablemedium includes computer-executable instructions that, when executed bya processor of a user equipment, cause the user equipment to perform themethod of preparing data for transmission from a user equipmentdescribed herein.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or moreaspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claims. The following description andthe related drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative featuresof the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, ofbut a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspectsmay be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the presentdisclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description,briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some ofwhich are illustrated in the drawings. It is to be noted, however, thatthe drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosureand are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for thedescription may admit to other equally effective aspects.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exampletelecommunications system, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example logical architectureof a distributed RAN, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example physical architecture of adistributed RAN, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of anexample base station (BS) and user equipment (UE), in accordance withcertain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing examples for implementing a communicationprotocol stack, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 depicts an example of a DL-centric subframe, in accordance withcertain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 depicts an example of an UL-centric subframe, in accordance withcertain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 8A and 8B depict aspects of a method of preparing data fortransmission from a user equipment in a wireless communication system.

FIG. 9 depicts aspects of a method of preparing data for transmissionfrom a user equipment in a wireless communication system.

FIG. 10 depicts aspects of a method for preparing data for transmissionfrom a user equipment in a wireless communication system.

FIG. 11 depicts aspects of another method for preparing data fortransmission from a user equipment in a wireless communication system.

FIG. 12 depicts a communications device that may include variouscomponents configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosedherein in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspectmay be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specificrecitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processingsystems, and computer readable mediums for techniques for preparing datafor transmission from a user equipment in a wireless communicationsystem.

The following description provides examples, and is not limiting of thescope, applicability, or examples set forth in the claims. Changes maybe made in the function and arrangement of elements discussed withoutdeparting from the scope of the disclosure. Various examples may omit,substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. Forinstance, the methods described may be performed in an order differentfrom that described, and various steps may be added, omitted, orcombined. Also, features described with respect to some examples may becombined in some other examples. For example, an apparatus may beimplemented or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspectsset forth herein. In addition, the scope of the disclosure is intendedto cover such an apparatus or method which is practiced using otherstructure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to,or other than, the various aspects of the disclosure set forth herein.It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosedherein may be embodied by one or more elements of a claim. The word“exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, orillustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otheraspects.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunication technologies, such as LTE, CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA,SC-FDMA and other networks. The terms “network” and “system” are oftenused interchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technologysuch as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRAincludes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implementa radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications(GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as NR(e.g. 5G RA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, etc. UTRAand E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS).

New Radio (NR) is an emerging wireless communications technology underdevelopment in conjunction with the 5G Technology Forum (5GTF). 3GPPLong Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are releases of UMTSthat use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described indocuments from an organization named “3rd Generation PartnershipProject” (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from anorganization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). Thetechniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks andradio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networksand radio technologies. For clarity, while aspects may be describedherein using terminology commonly associated with 3G and/or 4G wirelesstechnologies, aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in othergeneration-based communication systems, such as 5G and later, includingNR technologies.

New Radio (NR) may support various wireless communication services, suchas: Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth (e.g. 80MHz and beyond), millimeter wave (mmW) targeting high carrier frequency(e.g. 27 GHz and beyond), massive machine-type communication (mMTC)targeting non-backward compatible machine-type communication (MTC)techniques, and/or mission critical services targeting ultra-reliablelow latency communications (URLLC). These services may include latencyand reliability requirements. These services may also have differenttransmission time intervals (TTIs) to meet respective quality of service(QoS) requirements. In addition, these services may coexist in the samesubframe. In LTE, the basic transmission time interval (TTI) or packetduration is 1 subframe of 1 ms, and a subframe may be further dividedinto two slots of 0.5 ms each. In NR, a subframe may still be 1 ms, butthe basic TTI may be referred to as a slot. Further, in NR, a subframemay contain a variable number of slots (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, . . .slots) depending on the tone spacing (e.g., 15, 30, 60, 120, 240, . . .kHz).

Example Wireless Communications System

FIG. 1 depicts an example wireless communication network 100 in whichaspects of the present disclosure may be performed. For example, thewireless network may be a New Radio (NR) or 5G network.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the wireless network 100 may include a numberof base stations (BSs) 110 and other network entities. A BS may be astation that communicates with user equipments (UEs). Each BS 110 mayprovide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a Node B and/or aNode B subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context inwhich the term is used. In NR systems, the term “cell” and gNB, Node B,5G NB, AP, NR BS, NR BS, or TRP may be interchangeable. In someexamples, a cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographicarea of the cell may move according to the location of a mobile BS. Insome examples, the base stations may be interconnected to one anotherand/or to one or more other base stations or network nodes (not shown)in the wireless communication network 100 through various types ofbackhaul interfaces, such as a direct physical connection, a wirelessconnection, a virtual network, or the like using any suitable transportnetwork.

In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a givengeographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radioaccess technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. ARAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface,etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a frequencychannel, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a givengeographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networksof different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed.

A base station (BS) may provide communication coverage for a macro cell,a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cells. A macro cell maycover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers inradius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with servicesubscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic areaand may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. Afemto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home)and may allow restricted access by UEs having an association with thefemto cell (e.g., UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UEs for usersin the home, etc.). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macroBS. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for afemto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the exampleshown in FIG. 1, the BSs 110 a, 110 b and 110 c may be macro BSs for themacro cells 102 a, 102 b and 102 c, respectively. The BS 110 x may be apico BS for a pico cell 102 x. The BSs 110 y and 110 z may be femto BSsfor the femto cells 102 y and 102 z, respectively. A BS may support oneor multiple (e.g., three) cells.

The wireless communication network 100 may also include relay stations.A relay station is a station that receives a transmission of data and/orother information from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) andsends a transmission of the data and/or other information to adownstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be aUE that relays transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown in FIG.1, a relay station 110 r may communicate with the BS 110 a and a UE 120r in order to facilitate communication between the BS 110 a and the UE120 r. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay,etc.

The wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network that includesBSs of different types, e.g., macro BS, pico BS, femto BS, relays, etc.These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels,different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in thewireless network 100. For example, macro BS may have a high transmitpower level (e.g., 20 Watts) whereas pico BS, femto BS, and relays mayhave a lower transmit power level (e.g., 1 Watt).

The wireless communication network 100 may support synchronous orasynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the BSs may havesimilar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs may beapproximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the BSs mayhave different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs maynot be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may be used forboth synchronous and asynchronous operation.

A network controller 130 may couple to a set of BSs and providecoordination and control for these BSs. The network controller 130 maycommunicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may alsocommunicate with one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via wirelessor wireline backhaul.

The UEs 120 (e.g., 120 x, 120 y, etc.) may be dispersed throughout thewireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE mayalso be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal,a subscriber unit, a station, a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), acellular phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), awireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, alaptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station,a tablet computer, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, anultrabook, an appliance, a medical device or medical equipment, abiometric sensor/device, a wearable device such as a smart watch, smartclothing, smart glasses, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., asmart ring, a smart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., amusic device, a video device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicularcomponent or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, industrial manufacturingequipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitabledevice that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.Some UEs may be considered evolved or machine-type communication (MTC)devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, forexample, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors,location tags, etc., that may communicate with a BS, another device(e.g., remote device), or some other entity. A wireless node mayprovide, for example, connectivity for or to a network (e.g., a widearea network such as Internet or a cellular network) via a wired orwireless communication link. Some UEs may be consideredInternet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

In FIG. 1, a solid line with double arrows indicates desiredtransmissions between a UE and a serving BS, which is a BS designated toserve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink. A dashed line with doublearrows indicates interfering transmissions between a UE and a BS.

Certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrierfrequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDMpartition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers,which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarriermay be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent inthe frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. Thespacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total numberof subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. Forexample, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimumresource allocation (called a “resource block” (RB)) may be 12subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal Fast FourierTransfer (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 forsystem bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz),respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned intosub-bands. For example, a sub-band may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resourceblocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 sub-bands for systembandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 MHz, respectively.

While aspects of the examples described herein may be associated withLTE technologies, aspects of the present disclosure may be applicablewith other wireless communications systems, such as NR.

NR may utilize OFDM with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the uplink and downlinkand include support for half-duplex operation using time divisionduplexing (TDD). A single component carrier (CC) bandwidth of 100 MHzmay be supported. NR resource blocks may span 12 subcarriers with asubcarrier bandwidth of 75 kHz over a 0.1 ms duration. Each radio frameof 10 ms may consist of 2 half-frames of 5 ms, and each half-frame mayconsist of 5 subframes of 1 ms. Each subframe may indicate a linkdirection (i.e., DL or UL) for data transmission and the link directionfor each subframe may be dynamically switched. Each subframe may includeDL/UL data as well as DL/UL control data. UL and DL subframes for NR maybe as described in more detail below with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7.Beamforming may be supported and beam direction may be dynamicallyconfigured. MIMO transmissions with precoding may also be supported.MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas withmulti-layer DL transmissions up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE.Multi-layer transmissions with up to 2 streams per UE may be supported.Aggregation of multiple cells may be supported with up to 8 servingcells. Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface, otherthan an OFDM-based interface. NR networks may include entities suchcentral units (CUs) and/or distributed units (DUs).

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, whereina scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) allocates resources forcommunication among some or all devices and equipment within its servicearea or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below,the scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning,reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinateentities. That is, for scheduled communication, subordinate entitiesutilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. Base stations arenot the only entities that may function as a scheduling entity. In someexamples, a UE may function as a scheduling entity and may scheduleresources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more otherUEs). In such examples, other UEs may utilize resources scheduled by theUE for wireless communication. In some examples, a UE may function as ascheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, and/or in a meshnetwork. In a mesh network example, UEs may optionally communicatedirectly with one another in addition to communicating with a schedulingentity.

Thus, in a wireless communication network with a scheduled access totime-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2Pconfiguration, and a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one ormore subordinate entities may communicate utilizing the scheduledresources.

As noted above, a Radio Access Network (RAN) may include a Central Unit(CU) and Distributed Units (DUs). A NR BS (e.g., gNB, 5G Node B, Node B,transmission reception point (TRP), access point (AP)) may correspond toone or multiple BSs. NR cells can be configured as access cell (ACells)or as data only cells (DCells). For example, the RAN (e.g., a CU or DU)can configure the cells. DCells may be cells used for carrieraggregation or dual connectivity, but not used for initial access, cellselection/reselection, or handover. In some cases DCells may nottransmit synchronization signals—in some case cases DCells may transmitsynchronization signals (SS). NR BSs may transmit downlink signals toUEs indicating the cell type. Based on the cell type indication, the UEmay communicate with the NR BS. For example, the UE may determine NR BSsto consider for cell selection, access, handover, and/or measurementbased on the indicated cell type.

FIG. 2 depicts an example logical architecture of a distributed RadioAccess Network (RAN) 200, which may be implemented in the wirelesscommunication system illustrated in FIG. 1. A 5G access node 206 mayinclude an Access Node Controller (ANC) 202. The ANC may be a CentralUnit (CU) of the distributed RAN 200. The backhaul interface to the NextGeneration Core Network (NG-CN) 204 may terminate at the ANC. Thebackhaul interface to Neighboring Next Generation Access Nodes (NG-ANs)may terminate at the ANC. The ANC may include one or more TRPs 208(which may also be referred to as BSs, NR BSs, Node Bs, 5G NBs, APs, orsome other term). As described above, a TRP may be used interchangeablywith “cell.”

The TRPs 208 may be a DU. The TRPs may be connected to one ANC (ANC 202)or more than one ANC (not illustrated). For example, for RAN sharing,radio as a service (RaaS), and service specific AND deployments, the TRPmay be connected to more than one ANC. A Transmission Reception Point(TRP) may include one or more antenna ports. The TRPs may be configuredto individually (e.g., dynamic selection) or jointly (e.g., jointtransmission) serve traffic to a UE.

The logical architecture 200 may be used to illustrate fronthauldefinition. The logical architecture 200 may support fronthaulingsolutions across different deployment types. For example, the logicalarchitecture 200 may be based on transmit network capabilities (e.g.,bandwidth, latency, and/or jitter).

The logical architecture 200 may share features and/or components withLTE. The Next Generation Access Node (NG-AN) 210 may support dualconnectivity with NR. The NG-AN 210 may share a common fronthaul for LTEand NR.

The logical architecture 200 may enable cooperation between and amongTRPs 208. For example, cooperation may be preset within a TRP and/oracross TRPs via the ANC 202. There may be no inter-TRP interface.

Logical architecture 200 may have a dynamic configuration of splitlogical functions. As will be described in more detail with reference toFIG. 5, the Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, Packet Data ConvergenceProtocol (PDCP) layer, Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, Medium AccessControl (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layers may be adaptably placedat the DU or CU (e.g., TRP or ANC, respectively).

FIG. 3 depicts an example physical architecture 300 of a distributedRadio Access Network (RAN), according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. A Centralized Core Network Unit (C-CU) 302 may host corenetwork functions. The C-CU 302 may be centrally deployed. C-CUfunctionality may be offloaded (e.g., to advanced wireless services(AWS)), in an effort to handle peak capacity.

A centralized RAN unit (C-RU) 304 may host one or more ANC functions.Optionally, the C-RU 304 may host core network functions locally. TheC-RU 304 may have distributed deployment. The C-RU 304 may be close tothe network edge.

A DU 306 may host one or more TRPs (Edge Node (EN), an Edge Unit (EU), aRadio Head (RH), a Smart Radio Head (SRH), or the like). The DU may belocated at edges of the network with radio frequency (RF) functionality.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a design of a BS 110 and a UE 120, whichmay be one of the BSs and one of the UEs in FIG. 1. For a restrictedassociation scenario, the BS 110 may be the macro BS 110 c in FIG. 1,and the UE 120 may be the UE 120 y. The BS 110 may also be a BS of someother type. The BS 110 may be equipped with antennas 434 a through 434t, and the UE 120 may be equipped with antennas 452 a through 452 r. TheBS may include a TRP and may be referred to as a Master eNB (MeNB)(e.g., Master BS or Primary BS). The Master BS and the Secondary BS maybe geographically co-located.

One or more components of the BS 110 and UE 120 may be used to practiceaspects of the present disclosure. For example, antennas 452,transceivers 454, detector 456, processors 466, 458, 464, and/orcontroller/processor 480 of the UE 120 and/or antennas 434, transceivers432, detector 436, processors 420, 430, 438, and/or controller/processor440 of the BS 110 may be used to perform the various techniques andmethods described herein.

At the BS 110, a transmit processor 420 may receive data from a datasource 412 and control information from a controller/processor 440. Thecontrol information may be for the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH),Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), Physical Hybrid ARQIndicator Channel (PHICH), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH),etc. The data may be for the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH),etc. The processor 420 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) thedata and control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols,respectively. The processor 420 may also generate reference symbols,e.g., for the Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), SecondarySynchronization Signal (SSS), and Cell-Specific Reference Signal (CRS).A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 430 mayperform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, thecontrol symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and mayprovide output symbol streams to the modulators (MODs) withintransceivers 432 a through 432 t. Each modulator may process arespective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain anoutput sample stream. Each modulator may further process (e.g., convertto analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream toobtain a downlink signal. Downlink signals from transceivers 432 athrough 432 t may be transmitted via the antennas 434 a through 434 t,respectively.

At the UE 120, the antennas 452 a through 452 r may receive the downlinksignals from the base station 110 and may provide received signals tothe demodulators (DEMODs) in transceivers 454 a through 454 r,respectively. Each demodulator may condition (e.g., filter, amplify,downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain inputsamples. Each demodulator may further process the input samples (e.g.,for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 456 mayobtain received symbols from the demodulators in transceivers 454 athrough 454 r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols ifapplicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 458 mayprocess (e.g., deinterleave and decode) the detected symbols, providedecoded data for the UE 120 to a data sink 460, and provide decodedcontrol information to a controller/processor 480.

On the uplink, at the UE 120, a transmit processor 464 may receive andprocess data (e.g., for the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)) froma data source 462 and control information (e.g., for the Physical UplinkControl Channel (PUCCH) from the controller/processor 480. The transmitprocessor 464 may also generate reference symbols for a referencesignal. The symbols from the transmit processor 464 may be precoded by aTX MIMO processor 466 if applicable, further processed by thedemodulators in transceivers 454 a through 454 r (e.g., for SC-FDM,etc.), and transmitted to the base station 110. At the BS 110, theuplink signals from the UE 120 may be received by the antennas 434,processed by the transceivers 432 a through 432 t, detected by a MIMOdetector 436 if applicable, and further processed by a receive processor438 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by the UE 120.The receive processor 438 may provide the decoded data to a data sink439 and the decoded control information to the controller/processor 440.

The controllers/processors 440 and 480 may direct the operation at thebase station 110 and the UE 120, respectively. The processor 440 and/orother processors and modules at the BS 110 may perform or direct theexecution of processes for the techniques described herein. The memories442 and 482 may store data and program codes for the BS 110 and the UE120, respectively. A scheduler 444 may schedule UEs for datatransmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

FIG. 5 depicts a diagram 500 showing examples for implementing acommunications protocol stack, according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. The illustrated communications protocol stacks may beimplemented by devices operating in a wireless communication system,such as a 5G system. Diagram 500 includes a communications protocolstack including a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer 510, a Packet DataConvergence Protocol (PDCP) layer 515, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer520, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer 525, and a Physical (PHY) layer530. In various examples, the layers of a protocol stack may beimplemented as separate modules of software, portions of a processor orASIC, portions of non-collocated devices connected by a communicationslink, or various combinations thereof. Collocated and non-collocatedimplementations may be used, for example, in a protocol stack for anetwork access device (e.g., ANs, CUs, and/or DUs) or a UE.

A first option 505-a shows a split implementation of a protocol stack,in which implementation of the protocol stack is split between acentralized network access device (e.g., an ANC 202 in FIG. 2) anddistributed network access device (e.g., DU 208 in FIG. 2). In the firstoption 505-a, an RRC layer 510 and a PDCP layer 515 may be implementedby the central unit, and an RLC layer 520, a MAC layer 525, and a PHYlayer 530 may be implemented by the DU. In various examples the CU andthe DU may be collocated or non-collocated. The first option 505-a maybe useful in a macro cell, micro cell, or pico cell deployment.

A second option 505-b shows a unified implementation of a protocolstack, in which the protocol stack is implemented in a single networkaccess device (e.g., an access node (AN), a new radio base station (NRBS), a new radio Node-B (NR NB), a network node (NN), or the like). Inthe second option, the RRC layer 510, the PDCP layer 515, the RLC layer520, the MAC layer 525, and the PHY layer 530 may each be implemented bythe AN. The second option 505-b may be useful in, for example, a femtocell deployment.

Regardless of whether a network access device implements part or all ofa protocol stack, a UE may implement an entire protocol stack as shownin 505-c (e.g., the RRC layer 510, the PDCP layer 515, the RLC layer520, the MAC layer 525, and the PHY layer 530).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a DL-centric subframe 600,such as may be used with a RAT like NR. The DL-centric subframe 600 mayinclude a control portion 602. The control portion 602 may exist in theinitial or beginning portion of the DL-centric subframe 600. The controlportion 602 may include various scheduling information and/or controlinformation corresponding to various portions of the DL-centricsubframe. In some configurations, the control portion 602 may be aphysical DL control channel (PDCCH), as indicated in FIG. 6. TheDL-centric subframe 600 may also include a DL data portion 604. The DLdata portion 604 may be referred to as the payload of the DL-centricsubframe 600. The DL data portion 604 may include the communicationresources utilized to communicate DL data from the scheduling entity(e.g., UE or BS) to the subordinate entity (e.g., UE). In someconfigurations, the DL data portion 604 may be a physical DL sharedchannel (PDSCH).

The DL-centric subframe 600 may also include a common UL portion 606.The common UL portion 606 may sometimes be referred to as an UL burst, acommon UL burst, and/or various other suitable terms. The common ULportion 606 may include feedback information corresponding to variousother portions of the DL-centric subframe. For example, the common ULportion 606 may include feedback information corresponding to thecontrol portion 602. Non-limiting examples of feedback information mayinclude an ACK signal, a NACK signal, a HARQ indicator, and/or variousother suitable types of information. The common UL portion 606 mayinclude additional or alternative information, such as informationpertaining to random access channel (RACH) procedures, schedulingrequests (SRs), and various other suitable types of information. Asillustrated in FIG. 6, the end of the DL data portion 604 may beseparated in time from the beginning of the common UL portion 606. Thistime separation may sometimes be referred to as a gap, a guard period, aguard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This separationprovides time for the switch-over from DL communication (e.g., receptionoperation by the subordinate entity (e.g., UE)) to UL communication(e.g., transmission by the subordinate entity (e.g., UE)). One ofordinary skill in the art will understand that the foregoing is merelyone example of a DL-centric subframe and alternative structures havingsimilar features may exist without necessarily deviating from theaspects described herein.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an UL-centric subframe 700.The UL-centric subframe 700 may include a control portion 702. Thecontrol portion 702 may exist in the initial or beginning portion of theUL-centric subframe. The control portion 702 in FIG. 7 may be similar tothe control portion described above with reference to FIG. 6. TheUL-centric subframe 700 may also include an UL data portion 704. The ULdata portion 704 may sometimes be referred to as the payload of theUL-centric subframe 700. The UL portion may refer to the communicationresources utilized to communicate UL data from the subordinate entity(e.g., UE) to the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS). In someconfigurations, the control portion 702 may be a physical UL controlchannel (PUCCH).

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the end of the control portion 702 may beseparated in time from the beginning of the UL data portion 704. Thistime separation may sometimes be referred to as a gap, guard period,guard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This separationprovides time for the switch-over from DL communication (e.g., receptionoperation by the scheduling entity) to UL communication (e.g.,transmission by the scheduling entity). The UL-centric subframe 700 mayalso include a common UL portion 706. The common UL portion 706 in FIG.7 may be similar to the common UL portion 706 described above withreference to FIG. 7. The common UL portion 706 may additionally oralternatively include information pertaining to channel qualityindicator (CQI), sounding reference signals (SRSs), and various othersuitable types of information. One of ordinary skill in the art willunderstand that the foregoing is merely one example of an UL-centricsubframe and alternative structures having similar features may existwithout necessarily deviating from the aspects described herein.

In some circumstances, two or more subordinate entities (e.g., UEs) maycommunicate with each other using sidelink signals. Real-worldapplications of such sidelink communications may include public safety,proximity services, UE-to-network relaying, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)communications, Internet of Everything (IoE) communications, IoTcommunications, mission-critical mesh, and/or various other suitableapplications. Generally, a sidelink signal may refer to a signalcommunicated from one subordinate entity (e.g., UE1) to anothersubordinate entity (e.g., UE2) without relaying that communicationthrough the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS), even though thescheduling entity may be utilized for scheduling and/or controlpurposes. In some examples, the sidelink signals may be communicatedusing a licensed spectrum (unlike wireless local area networks, whichtypically use an unlicensed spectrum).

A UE may operate in various radio resource configurations, including aconfiguration associated with transmitting pilots using a dedicated setof resources (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) dedicated state,etc.) or a configuration associated with transmitting pilots using acommon set of resources (e.g., an RRC common state, etc.). Whenoperating in the RRC dedicated state, the UE may select a dedicated setof resources for transmitting a pilot signal to a network. Whenoperating in the RRC common state, the UE may select a common set ofresources for transmitting a pilot signal to the network. In eithercase, a pilot signal transmitted by the UE may be received by one ormore network access devices, such as an AN, or a DU, or portionsthereof. Each receiving network access device may be configured toreceive and measure pilot signals transmitted on the common set ofresources, and also receive and measure pilot signals transmitted ondedicated sets of resources allocated to the UEs for which the networkaccess device is a member of a monitoring set of network access devicesfor the UE. One or more of the receiving network access devices, or a CUto which receiving network access device(s) transmit the measurements ofthe pilot signals, may use the measurements to identify serving cellsfor the UEs, or to initiate a change of serving cell for one or more ofthe UEs.

Example Method for Improved Scheduling of Uplink Transport Blocks

As discussed above, with respect to FIG. 5, data to be transmitted froma user equipment, such as application data created in the user plane,may be formatted through several conceptual layers, including the PacketData Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, Radio Link Control (RLC) layer,Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and the Physical (PHY) layer beforebeing transmitted on the air interface (e.g., NR, 5G, LTE, 4G, and thelike).

Generally speaking, for the transmission path, the PDCP layer receivesIP packets from the user plane (e.g., from an application on the userequipment) as service data units (SDUs) and prepares PDCP protocol dataunits (PDUs) for the RLC layer. The RLC layer receives the PDCP PDUs asRLC SDUs, appends additional header data to form RLC PDUs, and passesthe RLC PDUs to the MAC layer on logical channels. There are manydifferent logical channels assigned for different data types (e.g., userplane versus control plane) and different data directions (e.g., uplinkversus downlink). Examples of logical channels include the dedicatedtraffic channel (DTCH), dedicated control channel (DCCH), common controlchannel (CCCH), paging control channel (PCCH), broadcast control channel(BCCH), multicast control channel (MCCH), and multicast traffic channel(MTCH). The MAC layer receives the RLC PDUs as MAC SDUs then addsadditional header data and padding to form MAC PDUs. The MAC layer thensends the MAC PDUs to the PHY layer on transport channels in the form oftransport blocks, which are the length of the TTI, but may includevariable amount of data based on factors such as modulation, coding,number of sub-carriers allocated, etc. Like logical channels, there aredifferent transport channels for different types of data and datadirections. Example transport channels include the uplink shared channel(UL-SCH), random access channel (RACH), downlink shared channel(DL-SCH), paging channel (PCH), broadcast channel (BCH), and multicastchannel (MCH). Generally speaking, the MAC layer schedules alltransmissions on the air interface and controls certain operations ofthe physical interface. Thereafter, the PHY layer transmits data ondifferent physical data channels, such as the physical uplink sharedchannel (PUSCH), physical random access channel (RACH), physicaldownlink shared channel (PDSCH), physical broadcast channel (PBCH), andphysical multicast channel (PMCH).

When preparing data to be transmitted, the user equipment may implementa logical channel prioritization function, which determines how muchdata the user equipment should transmit from each incoming logicalchannel (i.e., between the RLC layer and the MAC layer) in everytransmission time interval (TTI). The incoming logical channels may havelogical channel IDs and in some examples, a fixed number of logicalchannels may be implemented by a specification. A packet mappingfunction of the user equipment may use the resulting prioritization inorder to map data in a memory (e.g., memory 1110 in FIG. 11, describedfurther below) to one or more transport blocks for transmission in anupcoming transmission time interval. Once the packet mapping functionhas mapped the data to the transport blocks, the user equipment mayfetch the data from the memory (e.g., from a transmit buffer) andprepare it for transmission on the physical data channels.

An issue may arise when data from many logical channels are mapped to aparticular transmission time interval. Because each data retrieval(i.e., fetch) takes a certain period of time to complete, it is possiblethat data being fetched from a memory for a particular transport blocktoward the end of a transmission time interval does not arrive in timebefore the transport blocks are sent to the physical layer fortransmission. The missing data in such instances may corrupt thetransport block and require the whole transmit block to beretransmitted, which leads to inefficient use of the air interface.

FIG. 8A depicts aspects of a method for preparing data for transmissionfrom a user equipment in a wireless communication system. In particular,FIG. 8A depicts aspects of a method for limiting memory access startsduring a time interval to ensure that all memory access operations arecompleted timely for a transmission time interval.

As shown in FIG. 8A, a transmission time interval, such as TTI 802, maybe subdivided into a number of memory packet processing time intervals(PPTI) 804 and/or memory access intervals (MAI) 806. In the exampleshown in FIG. 8A, the memory access interval 806 is the shortestinterval for consideration. The memory access interval 806 maycorrespond to an amount of time necessary to fetch data from a memory inthe user equipment, such as a main or primary memory. For example, thememory access interval 806 may correspond to a time to complete a directmemory access (DMA) operation using a DDR memory in the user equipment.In some examples, the memory access interval 806 may correspond to aworst-case time interval, such as the longest time it could possiblytake to fetch data from the memory. In other cases, the memory accessinterval 806 may correspond to an average case time interval, such asthe average time it takes to fetch data from the memory. In yet othercases, the memory access interval 806 may correspond to a best case timeinterval, such as the shortest time it could possibly take to fetch datafrom the memory. Other examples are possible. In some embodiments, thememory access interval is approximately 35 microseconds. In otherembodiments, the memory access interval is in a range of 25-50microseconds.

The packet processing time interval 804 in FIG. 8A is based on amultiple of the memory access interval 806. In this case, a singlepacket processing interval 804 corresponds to two memory accessintervals 806. In other cases, the packet processing interval 804 couldbe equal to fewer units of the memory access interval 806, such as asingle memory access interval, or to more units of the memory accessinterval 806, such as three or more. In yet other cases, the packetprocessing interval 804 may be a fractional multiple of the memoryaccess interval 806, such as one and one-half units. Further, the packetprocessing interval 804 may be dynamic based on operating conditions ofthe user equipment, such as the amount of memory in use, thefragmentation of the memory, the priority of the data transmission, theTTI duration in use, etc.

A function of the user equipment, such as a packet mapping function, mayuse the packet processing time interval 804 as reference to limit thenumber of memory accesses planned in a given period of time. Forexample, the packet mapping function may limit the number of memoryaccess “starts” within a packet processing time interval 804 to aparticular value (e.g., a “maximum starts” or “max starts” value) inorder to avoid the possibility of having too many memory accesses in aparticular packet processing time interval. It may be desirable to limitthe number of memory access starts during a packet processing timeinterval 804 in order to avoid a memory access operation “running late”and failing to deliver the data to construct transport block on time,according to the timing requirement of the air interface.

For example, FIG. 8A depicts the layout of a plurality of data blocks(DB1-10) in a plurality of transport blocks (TB1-8) 808 within a singletransport time interval 802. In this example, the maximum startsthreshold value is set at ten i.e., the maximum number of new memoryaccesses (e.g., DMA operations) the packet mapping function will allowduring the packet processing time interval 804 is ten. The maximumstarts value may be set, for example, arbitrarily or, as anotherexample, as a function of one or more of: the memory access timeinterval length, packet processing time interval length, andtransmission time interval length.

As depicted in FIG. 8A, there are ten memory access starts 810 withinthe first packet processing time interval 804 (PPTI-1) of transmissiontime interval 802. Here, the ten memory accesses starts are associatedwith data blocks (DB1-10), which may correspond to the logical channelsselected for transmission according to the logical channelprioritization scheme, discussed above. The maximum number of starts isreached at 816 within PPTI-1 and with respect to data block 10 (DB10) intransport block 7 (TB7). Notably, in this example, the packet processingfunction discontinues memory accesses after the maximum number of memoryaccess starts is reached in either packet processing time interval 804(i.e., in PPTI-1 or PPTI-2). Thus, limiting the number of memory accessstarts in a given packet processing time interval 804 may prevent amemory access operation from beginning too late to finish by the end ofthe transmit time interval 802, which beneficially avoids thepossibility of corrupting the data transmission associated withtransmission time interval 802.

A consequence of limiting the number of memory access starts in a givenpacket processing time interval, however, is that the user equipmentwill no longer fetch new data once the maximum number of memory accessstarts is reached, even if there is space left in resource block 800(e.g., in part of transport block 7 and all of transport block 8 in thisexample). Instead, according to one option the user equipment mayinclude padding bits in the rest of the available transport block spacein the transmission time interval 802. For example, in FIG. 8A, padding812 is inserted into part of transport block 7 and all of transportblock 8. Notably, parts of transport block 7 are padded even though themaximum number of memory access starts in the second packet processingtime interval 804 (PPTI-2) is not reached (here, there are only fourmemory access starts in PPTI-2). This may be due to the radio accesstechnology requiring that once padding inside a transport block begins,it cannot end until the end of the transport block. Thus, while limitingthe number of memory access starts in a given time period, such as thepacket processing time interval 804, may protect against the possibilityof not meeting the packet building timeline in the transmission timeinterval 802, it may also result in inefficient use of resource block800 since padding will be transmitted on the air interface.

FIG. 8B depicts further enhancements to the packet planning processdepicted in FIG. 8A. In FIG. 8B, the first ten data blocks (DB1-10) arescheduled the same way as in FIG. 8A. However, in FIG. 8B, upon reachingmaximum starts at 816, the packet mapping function of the user equipmentwill discontinue additional memory access operations during PPTI-1 and,instead, begin repeating or duplicating data from the previous datablocks DB1-10 at time 818. Data blocks R1 and R2 may include data fromany of the previous data blocks DB1-10, such as a portion of one or moreof data blocks DB1-10, or a whole data block, etc. Note that in thisexample there are two blocks of repeated data (R1 and R2), but in otherexamples there could be any number of blocks of repeated data dependingon the type of data chosen to be repeated (e.g., by the packet mappingfunction of the user equipment).

The data repeated in blocks R1 and R2 may comprise elements of payloadassociated with a data radio bearer (DRB) or a Signaling Radio Bearer(SRB) packet data convergence protocol service data unit (PDCP SDU),such as: a radio link control status protocol data unit (RLC statusPDU); or an RLC control PDU; or a medium access control (MAC) controlPDU, or a MAC status PDU, or a PDCP control PDU; or a PDCP status PDU;or other elements. For example, RLC control PDUs, such as the statusPDU, may be repeated in one or more of blocks R1 and R2.

There are several considerations in deciding what to repeat (i.e.,duplicate) in blocks R1 and R2. For example, repeating data within acode block may not be as useful because the first version is generallyreceived at the same time as the duplicate version. However, repeatingdata across code blocks or transport blocks may provide diversity andtherefore may expedite delivery of the data. For example, repeatingcopies of low latency data, such as data using RLC unacknowledged mode,across different code blocks may provide diversity, which is especiallyuseful for low latency services. As another example, repeating TCPacknowledgement data (e.g., ACKs) can create issues because the TCPsender may respond to several (e.g., three or more) duplicate ACKs witha fast retransmit procedure, which may reduce throughput on the airinterface. One potential method of mitigating this issue is that theuser equipment can avoid duplicating packets smaller than 100 bytes(such as ACKs) on the internet default bearer. As yet another example,duplicating RRC measurement reports in different code blocks could lowerthe latency for delivering the reports, and therefore could beneficiallyaccelerate handover and reduce outage.

Another consideration with respect to the strategy of repeating data inblocks R1 and R2 is that the data to be repeated must be storedsomewhere other than the main memory that is accessed in the firstinstance (because otherwise it would require additional memory accessstarts). Thus, a secondary memory, such as an on-chip memory, may beadded to the user equipment to cache data fetched from the primarymemory. In this way, data may be cached for repetition without the needfor another memory access operation, such as a DMA operation.

FIG. 8B depicts another packet mapping enhancement as compared to FIG.8A. In particular, instead of padding the rest of the transmission timeinterval 802 after reaching the maximum number of memory access startsin either of the packet processing time intervals 804 withintransmission time interval 802 (in FIG. 8A, max starts is reached at 816in PPTI-1), in FIG. 8B the two packet processing time intervals aretreated independently. Consequently, even if the maximum number ofmemory access starts is reached in PPTI-1 (as at 816), the packetmapping function of the user equipment may schedule new memory accessoperations in PPTI-2 if the number of memory access starts in PPTI-2 isbelow the memory access starts threshold. Accordingly, in FIG. 8B, a newmemory access is started in the second packet processing time interval(PPTI-2) to add data block 11 (DB11) to transport block 7 (TB7) despitethe maximum number of memory access starts being reached in the firstpacket processing time interval PPTI-1 in transport block 7 (TB7) at816. Similarly, a new memory access is initiated in the second packetprocessing time interval (PPTI-2) to add data block 12 (DB12) totransport block 8 (TB8) because the total number of memory access starts814 in PPTI-2 remains below the threshold of ten. Thus, by applying themaximum memory access start strategy to packet processing time intervals804 individually, more data is added to resource block 850 intransmission time interval 802, which results in more efficient use ofthe air interface.

In the example depicted in FIG. 8B, transport block 8 (TB8) is padded inPPTI-1 due to reaching max starts at 816. In some embodiments, thesecondary memory used to cache data fetched from the primary memory maybe small in order to, for example, keep cost and chip size down. Thus,the blocks of repeated data R1 and R2 may be sufficient to duplicate thedata capable of being stored in the secondary memory. However, in otherembodiments, this padding may be replaced with additional repeated datafrom data blocks (e.g., DB1-10). This could be accomplished by, forexample, increasing the secondary memory size, or by repeating data morethan once. For example, data selected for repetition may be repeatedtwo, three, or more times.

When treating the packet processing time intervals independently forpurpose of padding, it may be beneficial to specify the length of thepadding, for example, via a MAC header. That is, a variable length ofpadding may be indicated via a MAC header that may include a paddinglength indication together with a padding identifier. In this way, it ispossible to pad specific portions of a transport block and resumemapping data from data blocks after padding the specific portion, butbefore the end of the transport block, such as shown in TB8 in FIG. 8B.Notably, while the padding in TB8 is shown in FIG. 8 as the entirelength of packet processing time interval PPTI-1, in other examples itmay be only a portion of a packet processing time interval. The abilityto define a length of the padding, for example in a MAC header, meansthat the padding of transport blocks may be enhanced significantly ascompared to a strategy of padding to the end of a transport blockwhenever padding of that transport block is begun.

Another packet mapping enhancement is to replace standard padding, whichmay be a string of random bits or unitary bits (e.g., all zeros orones), with actual data bits so that the portions of a transport blockthat are planned to carry padding are actually carrying data. Forexample, the paddings in transport block TB8 during packet processingtime interval PPTI-1 may include data from a logical channel that is notconfigured for the data transmission session, i.e., an invalid logicalchannel. For example, the padding in transport block TB8 could bereplaced with data from a logical channel that is allowed by aspecification (e.g., 3GPP), but is not currently configured by a radioresource controller (RRC). As another example, the padding in transportblock TB8 could be replaced with data from a logical channel that isreserved, i.e., not intended to be used during the transmission session.In some examples, the content of the data from the logical channel thatis not configured or is otherwise reserved may include data such asthose repeated in blocks R1 and R2, as described above. While thereceiver (e.g., an eNodeB or gNodeB) may normally be expected to discardsuch data, the receiver may be modified to receive and process suchdata. In this way, the typical padding that conveys no information maybe replaced with padding including useful information. Notably, thisenhancement is complimentary to those described above because somepadding may exist even after implementing the methods described above.

Notably, while the packet processing time intervals described withrespect to FIGS. 8A and 8B are used to monitor memory access starts, thepacket processing time intervals may be used as a reference formeasuring any metric that relates to the preparation of data fortransmission, including memory access time, payload ciphering time, etc.

For example, in FIG. 9 the packet processing time intervals 904 are usedas a reference for how many protocol data units, e.g. PDCP PDUs, arescheduled for transmission during a particular interval (e.g., PPTI-1 orPPTI-2). In some embodiments, an appropriate threshold value (e.g.,“maximum PDUs”) may be set for the number of PDCP PDUs scheduled withina packet processing time interval, such as PPTI-1 and PPTI-2. Such athreshold may help to limit, for example, the number of cipheringoperations required during the packet processing time interval.

For example, if the maximum number of PDCP PDUs allowed in a packetprocessing time interval 904 is 15, then a packet mapping function maydiscontinue adding PDCP PDUs to data blocks after the number of PDCPPDUs reaches 15 in a particular packet processing time interval and maythereafter pad until the end of the transmission time interval 902. Asshown in FIG. 9, the number of PDCP PDUs reaches the maximum (15) at 906and thereafter padding 908 is added to the remainder of transport block7 (TB7) and transport block 8 (TB8).

The example depicted in FIG. 9 can be further enhanced in the samemanner as described with respect to FIG. 8B, above. Thus, the number ofPDUs in a given packet processing time interval be consideredindependently for each packet processing time interval 904 in order thatmore of the resource block 900 may be utilized for data transmission.

FIG. 10 depicts aspects of a method 1000 for preparing data fortransmission from a user equipment in a wireless communication system.For example, the method 1000 may be performed by a packet mappingfunction of a user equipment.

The method begins at step 1002, where a counter is initialized at thebeginning of a packet processing time interval of a transmit timeinterval. For example, the counter may be initialized at the beginningof packet processing time interval PPTI-1 or PPTI-2, as described withreference to FIGS. 8A-8B and 9, above.

The method then moves to step 1004 where a determination is made as towhether any data blocks are waiting to be transmitted during thetransmit time interval.

If there are no data blocks waiting to be transmitted during thetransmit time interval, then the method moves to step 1016 where themethod waits for the next packet processing time interval.

If there are data blocks waiting to be transmitted during the transmittime interval, then the method moves to step 1006 where a value of thecounter is compared to a threshold value. For example, the thresholdvalue could be the maximum memory access starts or the maximum PDCP PDUsallowed in a packet processing time interval, as discussed above withrespect to FIGS. 8A-8B and 9, respectively.

If the value of the counter is less than or equal to the threshold valueat step 1006, then the method moves to step 1008, where the respectivedata block is mapped to a location in a transport block, such as howdata blocks DB1-10 are mapped to transport blocks TB1-8 in FIGS. 8A-8Band 9.

After step 1008, the method moves to step 1012, where it is determinedwhether the packet processing event associated with the respective datablock will occur during the current packet processing time interval. Ifnot, then the method returns to step 1004. If so, then the method movesto step 1014 where the value of the counter is incremented. For example,referring back to FIG. 8A, if the next data block to be mapped to atransport block was DB8 and the current packet processing time intervalwas PPTI-1, then the counter would be incremented because mapping DB8 toTB6 would require a new memory access operation.

Returning to step 1006, if the value of the counter is greater than thethreshold value at step 1006, then the method moves to step 1016 wherethe method waits for the next packet processing time interval. Forexample, referring back to FIG. 8B, if the next data block to be mappedto a transport block was DB12 and the current packet processing timeinterval was PPTI-1, then the method would wait until PPTI-2 to mapDB12.

If the value of the counter is greater than the threshold value at step1006, then the method may also move to optional steps 1018 or 1020. Atoptional step 1018, the method pads a transport block. For example,referring back to FIG. 8B, if the next data block to be mapped to atransport block was DB12 and the current packet processing time intervalwas PPTI-1, then the method may pad a portion of a transport block suchas TB8 in FIG. 8B. In some examples, the padded portion of the transportblock may by specified by a padding length indicator in addition to apadding identifier in a MAC header, as described above with reference toFIG. 8B. Further, in some examples, the padding may include data from alogical channel that is not configured by the RRC or from a logicalchannel that is normally reserved, as described above with reference toFIG. 8B.

At optional step 1020, the method maps data from a previous data blockto a transport block. For example, again referring back to FIG. 8B, ifthe next data block to be mapped to a transport block was DB11 and thecurrent packet processing time interval was PPTI-1, then the method maymap repeated or duplicate data to a transport block, such as in blocksR1 and R2 in TB7 in FIG. 8B. As described above, this data may include,for example, elements of payload associated with a data radio bearer(DRB) or a Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB) packet data convergence protocolservice data unit (PDCP SDU), such as: a radio link control statusprotocol data unit (RLC status PDU); or an RLC control PDU; or a mediumaccess control (MAC) control PDU, or a MAC status PDU, or a PDCP controlPDU; or a PDCP status PDU; or other elements.

The steps (and their order) described with respect to method 1000 arejust one example of a possible method for preparing data fortransmission from a user equipment in a wireless communication system.

FIG. 11 depicts aspects of another method 1100 for preparing data fortransmission from a user equipment in a wireless communication system.For example, the method 1100 may be performed by a packet mappingfunction of a user equipment.

The method 1100 begins at step 1102, where a counter is initialized atthe beginning of a first packet processing time interval of a transmittime interval, such as a packet processing time intervals (PPTI) andtransmit time intervals (TTI) shown in FIGS. 8A-8B and 9.

The method 1100 proceeds to step 1104 where a plurality of data blocksare determined to be transmitted during the transmit time interval. Forexample, the data blocks DB1-10 in FIGS. 8A and 9 and data blocks DB1-12in FIG. 8B.

The method 1100 then proceeds to step 1106, where for each respectivedata block in the plurality of data blocks a value of the counter iscompared to a threshold value, such as the maximum memory access startsor maximum PDUs thresholds discussed above with respect to FIGS. 8A-8Band 9. If the value of the counter is less than or equal to thethreshold value, then the respective data block is mapped to a locationin one of a plurality of transport blocks, and the value of the counteris incremented if a packet processing event associated with therespective data block will occur during the first packet processing timeinterval of the transmit time interval. If the value of the counter isgreater than the threshold value: then the respective data block isbypassed during the first packet processing time interval. In otherwords, the respective data block is not mapped to a transport blockduring the first packet processing time interval.

Though not shown in FIG. 11, in some embodiments of method 1100, if thevalue of the counter is greater than the threshold value, then therespective data block is mapped to a location in one of the plurality oftransport blocks such that a packet processing event associated with therespective data block will not occur until a second packet processingtime interval of the transmit time interval.

FIG. 12 depicts a communications device 1200 that may include variouscomponents (e.g., corresponding to means-plus-function components)configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosed herein,such as the operations illustrated in FIGS. 8A-8B, 9, 10, and 11. Thecommunications device 1200 includes a processing system 1202 coupled toa transceiver 1210. The transceiver 1210 is configured to transmit andreceive signals for the communications device 1200 via an antenna 1212,such as the various signals described herein. The processing system 1202may be configured to perform processing functions for the communicationsdevice 1200, including processing signals received and/or to betransmitted by the communications device 1200.

The processing system 1202 includes a processor 1204 coupled to acomputer-readable medium/memory 1206 via a bus 1208. In certain aspects,the computer-readable medium/memory 1206 is configured to storecomputer-executable instructions that when executed by processor 1204,cause the processor 1204 to perform the operations illustrated in FIGS.8A-8B, 9, 10, and 11, or other operations for performing the varioustechniques discussed herein.

In certain aspects, the processing system 1202 further includes aninitializing component 1214 for performing the operations illustrated inFIGS. 8A-8B, 9, 10, and 11. Additionally, the processing system 1202includes a determining component 1216 for performing the operationsillustrated in FIGS. 8A-8B, 9, 10, and 11. Additionally, the processingsystem 1202 includes a comparing component 1218 for performing theoperations illustrated in FIGS. 8A-8B, 9, 10, and 11. Additionally, theprocessing system 1202 includes a determining component 1220 forperforming the operations illustrated in FIGS. 8A-8B, 9, 10, and 11. Theinitializing 1214, determining 1216, comparing 1218, and mapping 1220components may be coupled to the processor 1204 via bus 1208. In certainaspects, the initializing 1214, determining 1216, comparing 1218, andmapping 1220 components may be hardware circuits. In certain aspects,the initializing 1214, determining 1216, comparing 1218, and mapping1220 components may be software components that are executed and run onprocessor 1204.

The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions forachieving the methods. The method steps and/or actions may beinterchanged with one another without departing from the scope of theclaims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions isspecified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may bemodified without departing from the scope of the claims.

As used herein, a phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of itemsrefers to any combination of those items, including single members. Asan example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c,a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples ofthe same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b,b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety ofactions. For example, “determining” may include calculating, computing,processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in atable, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like.Also, “determining” may include receiving (e.g., receiving information),accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also,“determining” may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishingand the like.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the various aspects described herein. Variousmodifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied toother aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theaspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistentwith the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. All structural andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects describedthroughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known tothose of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein byreference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover,nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the publicregardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in theclaims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35U.S.C. § 112(f) unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase“means for” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recitedusing the phrase “step for.”

The various operations of methods described above may be performed byany suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions.The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s)and/or module(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. Generally,where there are operations illustrated in figures, those operations mayhave corresponding counterpart means-plus-function components withsimilar numbering.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits describedin connection with the present disclosure may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD),discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration maycomprise a processing system in a wireless node. The processing systemmay be implemented with a bus architecture. The bus may include anynumber of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specificapplication of the processing system and the overall design constraints.The bus may link together various circuits including a processor,machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface may beused to connect a network adapter, among other things, to the processingsystem via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement thesignal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the case of a userterminal 120 (see FIG. 1), a user interface (e.g., keypad, display,mouse, joystick, etc.) may also be connected to the bus. The bus mayalso link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals,voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which arewell known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.The processor may be implemented with one or more general-purpose and/orspecial-purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors,microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuitry that can executesoftware. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implementthe described functionality for the processing system depending on theparticular application and the overall design constraints imposed on theoverall system.

If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmittedover as one or more instructions or code on a computer readable medium.Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, or anycombination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.Computer-readable media include both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. The processor may beresponsible for managing the bus and general processing, including theexecution of software modules stored on the machine-readable storagemedia. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processorsuch that the processor can read information from, and write informationto, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may beintegral to the processor. By way of example, the machine-readable mediamay include a transmission line, a carrier wave modulated by data,and/or a computer readable storage medium with instructions storedthereon separate from the wireless node, all of which may be accessed bythe processor through the bus interface. Alternatively, or in addition,the machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be integratedinto the processor, such as the case may be with cache and/or generalregister files. Examples of machine-readable storage media may include,by way of example, RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, ROM (ReadOnly Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), registers, magnetic disks, opticaldisks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage medium, or anycombination thereof. The machine-readable media may be embodied in acomputer-program product.

A software module may comprise a single instruction, or manyinstructions, and may be distributed over several different codesegments, among different programs, and across multiple storage media.The computer-readable media may comprise a number of software modules.The software modules include instructions that, when executed by anapparatus such as a processor, cause the processing system to performvarious functions. The software modules may include a transmissionmodule and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in asingle storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices.By way of example, a software module may be loaded into RAM from a harddrive when a triggering event occurs. During execution of the softwaremodule, the processor may load some of the instructions into cache toincrease access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into ageneral register file for execution by the processor. When referring tothe functionality of a software module below, it will be understood thatsuch functionality is implemented by the processor when executinginstructions from that software module.

Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Forexample, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or otherremote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared(IR), radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, andmicrowave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, asused herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc,digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray® disc where disksusually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce dataoptically with lasers. Thus, in some aspects computer-readable media maycomprise non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media).In addition, for other aspects computer-readable media may comprisetransitory computer-readable media (e.g., a signal). Combinations of theabove should also be included within the scope of computer-readablemedia.

Thus, certain aspects may comprise a computer program product forperforming the operations presented herein. For example, such a computerprogram product may comprise a computer-readable medium havinginstructions stored (and/or encoded) thereon, the instructions beingexecutable by one or more processors to perform the operations describedherein. For example, instructions for perform the operations describedherein and illustrated in FIGS. 8A-8B, 9, 10, and 11.

Further, it should be appreciated that modules and/or other appropriatemeans for performing the methods and techniques described herein can bedownloaded and/or otherwise obtained by a user terminal and/or basestation as applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to aserver to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the methodsdescribed herein. Alternatively, various methods described herein can beprovided via storage means (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage mediumsuch as a compact disc (CD) or floppy disk, etc.), such that a userterminal and/or base station can obtain the various methods uponcoupling or providing the storage means to the device. Moreover, anyother suitable technique for providing the methods and techniquesdescribed herein to a device can be utilized.

It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the preciseconfiguration and components illustrated above. Various modifications,changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation anddetails of the methods and apparatus described above without departingfrom the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of preparing data for wirelesstransmission from a user equipment, comprising: initializing a memoryaccess counter at a beginning of a first packet processing time intervalof a wireless transmit time interval; determining a plurality of datablocks to be transmitted during the wireless transmit time interval; foreach respective data block in the plurality of data blocks: comparing avalue of the memory access counter to a threshold value; if the value ofthe memory access counter is less than or equal to the threshold value:mapping the respective data block to a location in one of a plurality ofwireless uplink transport blocks; and incrementing the value of thememory access counter if a packet processing event associated with therespective data block will occur during the first packet processing timeinterval of the wireless transmit time interval; and if the value of thememory access counter is greater than the threshold value: bypassing therespective data block during the first packet processing time interval;and transmitting a plurality of mapped data blocks during the wirelesstransmit time interval.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein: for eachrespective data block in the plurality of data blocks: if the value ofthe memory access counter is greater than the threshold value: mappingthe respective data block to a location in one of the plurality ofwireless uplink transport blocks such that a packet processing eventassociated with the respective data block will not occur until a secondpacket processing time interval of the wireless transmit time interval.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet processing event comprisesan insertion of a Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDU.
 4. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising: if the value of the memory access counteris greater than the threshold value: mapping padding to one or more ofthe plurality of wireless uplink transport blocks.
 5. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising: if the value of the memory access counteris greater than the threshold value: mapping at least a portion of apreviously mapped data block to one or more of the plurality of wirelessuplink transport blocks.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:fetching one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks from afirst memory in the user equipment during a first memory access timeinterval.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: adding one ormore data blocks of the plurality of data blocks to a medium accesscontrol protocol data unit for transmission from the user equipmentduring the wireless transmit time interval.
 8. The method of claim 6,further comprising: storing at least a portion of the one or more datablocks fetched from the first memory in a second memory during thewireless transmit time interval.
 9. The method of claim 5, wherein theat least a portion of a previously mapped data block comprises a packetdata convergence protocol service data unit.
 10. The method of claim 5,wherein the at least a portion of a previously mapped data blockcomprises a radio link control protocol data unit.
 11. The method ofclaim 5, wherein the at least a portion of a previously mapped datablock comprises a media access control protocol data unit.
 12. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the at least a portion of a previously mappeddata block comprises data from an invalid or reserved logical channel.13. The method of claim 4, wherein mapping padding to one or more of theplurality of wireless uplink transport blocks further comprises: mappingthe padding according to a padding length indicator.
 14. A userequipment for wireless communication, comprising: at least oneprocessor; and a first memory coupled to the at least one processor, thefirst memory including instructions executable by the at least oneprocessor to cause the user equipment to: initialize a memory accesscounter at a beginning of a first packet processing time interval of awireless transmit time interval; determine a plurality of data blocks tobe transmitted during the wireless transmit time interval; for eachrespective data block in the plurality of data blocks: compare a valueof the memory access counter to a threshold value; if the value of thememory access counter is less than or equal to the threshold value: mapthe respective data block to a location in one of a plurality ofwireless uplink transport blocks; and increment the value of the memoryaccess counter if a packet processing event associated with therespective data block will occur during the first packet processing timeinterval of the wireless transmit time interval; and if the value of thememory access counter is greater than the threshold value: bypass therespective data block during the first packet processing time interval;and transmit a plurality of mapped data blocks during the wirelesstransmit time interval.
 15. The user equipment of claim 14, wherein thefirst memory further includes instructions executable by the at leastone processor to cause the user equipment to: for each respective datablock in the plurality of data blocks: if the value of the memory accesscounter is greater than the threshold value: map the respective datablock to a location in one of the plurality of wireless uplink transportblocks such that a packet processing event associated with therespective data block will not occur until a second packet processingtime interval of the wireless transmit time interval.
 16. The userequipment of claim 15, wherein the packet processing event comprises aninsertion of a Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDU.
 17. The userequipment of claim 15, wherein the first memory further includesinstructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the userequipment to: if the value of the memory access counter is greater thanthe threshold value: map padding to one or more of the plurality ofwireless uplink transport blocks.
 18. The user equipment of claim 14,wherein the first memory further includes instructions executable by theat least one processor to cause the user equipment to: if the value ofthe memory access counter is greater than the threshold value: map atleast a portion of a previously mapped data block to one or more of theplurality of wireless uplink transport blocks.
 19. The user equipment ofclaim 14, wherein the first memory further includes instructionsexecutable by the at least one processor to cause the user equipment to:fetch one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks from asecond memory in the user equipment during a first memory access timeinterval.
 20. The user equipment of claim 14, wherein the first memoryfurther includes instructions executable by the at least one processorto cause the user equipment to: add one or more data blocks of theplurality of data blocks to a medium access control protocol data unitfor transmission from the user equipment during the wireless transmittime interval.
 21. The user equipment of claim 19, wherein the firstmemory further includes instructions executable by the at least oneprocessor to cause the user equipment to: store at least a portion ofthe one or more data blocks fetched from the second memory in a thirdmemory during the wireless transmit time interval.
 22. The userequipment of claim 18, wherein the at least a portion of a previouslymapped data block comprises a packet data convergence protocol servicedata unit.
 23. The user equipment of claim 18, wherein the at least aportion of a previously mapped data block comprises a radio link controlprotocol data unit.
 24. The user equipment of claim 18, wherein the atleast a portion of a previously mapped data block comprises a mediaaccess control protocol data unit.
 25. The user equipment of claim 18,wherein the at least a portion of a previously mapped data blockcomprises data from an invalid or reserved logical channel.
 26. The userequipment of claim 17, wherein mapping padding to one or more of theplurality of wireless uplink transport blocks further comprises: mappingthe padding according to a padding length indicator.
 27. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereoninstructions that when executed by a user equipment, cause the userequipment to perform a method, the method comprising: initializing amemory access counter at a beginning of a first packet processing timeinterval of a wireless transmit time interval; determining a pluralityof data blocks to be transmitted during the wireless transmit timeinterval; for each respective data block in the plurality of datablocks: comparing a value of the memory access counter to a thresholdvalue; if the value of the memory access counter is less than or equalto the threshold value: mapping the respective data block to a locationin one of a plurality of wireless uplink transport blocks; andincrementing the value of the memory access counter if a packetprocessing event associated with the respective data block will occurduring the first packet processing time interval of the wirelesstransmit time interval; and if the value of the memory access counter isgreater than the threshold value: bypassing the respective data blockduring the first packet processing time interval; and transmitting aplurality of mapped data blocks during the wireless transmit timeinterval.
 28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27,wherein: for each respective data block in the plurality of data blocks:if the value of the memory access counter is greater than the thresholdvalue: mapping the respective data block to a location in one of theplurality of wireless uplink transport blocks such that a packetprocessing event associated with the respective data block will notoccur until a second packet processing time interval of the wirelesstransmit time interval.
 29. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumof claim 27, wherein the packet processing event comprises an insertionof a Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDU.
 30. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the method furthercomprises: if the value of the memory access counter is greater than thethreshold value: mapping padding to one or more of the plurality ofwireless uplink transport blocks.
 31. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the method furthercomprises: if the value of the memory access counter is greater than thethreshold value: mapping at least a portion of a previously mapped datablock to one or more of the plurality of wireless uplink transportblocks.
 32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27,wherein the method further comprises: fetching one or more data blocksof the plurality of data blocks from a first memory in the userequipment during a first memory access time interval.
 33. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the methodfurther comprises: adding one or more data blocks of the plurality ofdata blocks to a medium access control protocol data unit fortransmission from the user equipment during the wireless transmit timeinterval.
 34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 32,wherein the method further comprises: storing at least a portion of theone or more data blocks fetched from the first memory in a second memoryduring the wireless transmit time interval.
 35. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the at least a portion ofa previously mapped data block comprises a packet data convergenceprotocol service data unit.
 36. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 31, wherein the at least a portion of a previouslymapped data block comprises a radio link control protocol data unit. 37.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the atleast a portion of a previously mapped data block comprises a mediaaccess control protocol data unit.
 38. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the at least a portion ofa previously mapped data block comprises data from an invalid orreserved logical channel.
 39. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 30, wherein mapping padding to one or more of theplurality of wireless uplink transport blocks further comprises: mappingthe padding according to a padding length indicator.
 40. A userequipment for wireless communication, comprising: means for initializinga memory access counter at a beginning of a first packet processing timeinterval of a wireless transmit time interval; means for determining aplurality of data blocks to be transmitted during the wireless transmittime interval; for each respective data block in the plurality of datablocks: means for comparing a value of the memory access counter to athreshold value; if the value of the memory access counter is less thanor equal to the threshold value: means for mapping the respective datablock to a location in one of a plurality of wireless uplink transportblocks; and means for incrementing the value of the memory accesscounter if a packet processing event associated with the respective datablock will occur during the first packet processing time interval of thewireless transmit time interval; and if the value of the memory accesscounter is greater than the threshold value: means for bypassing therespective data block during the first packet processing time interval;and means for transmitting a plurality of mapped data blocks during thewireless transmit time interval.